The dapper 61-year-old said in court that his only crime was his German name, which had made him unpopular with locals in Comrie, Perthshire.

It turns out it is a name he has only had since March 2011, when he adopted it – after being born Victor Albert Lewis Benjamin.

And, as the Record found out when we stepped into his world, there are few other things that stand up to scrutiny.

When our reporter met him, he was greeted in heavily accented English, peppered with German phrases.

Half an hour later, von Werra had lapsed into a Glaswegian accent.

He claimed the Luftwaffe uniform displayed in the living room of his rented cottage belonged to his father.

When it was pointed out that the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, fought and died in World War I rather than the later conflict, von Werra claimed his German dad served in the Great War as a teenager.

There was a World War II Luftwaffe unit which took Richthofen’s name as an honour title but von Werra passed up the chance to claim his father served with it.

Yet the uniform in his front room was unmistakably World War II and, on being pressed, he conceded the medals adorning it were “replicas”.

Research by the Record established his coffee table photograph of his father actually showed actor Anthony Valentine, who played a German officer in the television series Colditz.

Gordon Jack/scotimage.com

In the leather greatcoat he likes to wear in public

Von Werra also has a DVD of The One That Got Away, the film celebrating Franz von Werra, the only German POW to escape home after being shot down during the Battle of Britain.

But however contrived his German background is, von Werra – who sports bracelets and cufflinks and claims to have dated a Miss Scotland – is proud of his adopted country.

He told us: “My heart lies with Germany. Although I was not born there, I admire Germany. If you look at this country, and look at them, you would wonder who won the war.”

But he fervently denies being a Nazi – a slur he says has been levelled at him before and once was accompanied by a punch in the face.

He said: “If you are identified as German, as far as this village is concerned you’re a Nazi.

“But Nazism was ethnic cleansing. It was terrible what they did to the Jewish people. I also married a Jewish woman, so I could hardly be a Nazi.”

Indeed, some of the photos he has posted online include him wearing a Star of David pendant, a Jewish religious symbol.

Von Werra, who has no children, married Elise Blint in Glasgow in May 1999. She divorced him in 2007 and now lives in Holland.

He says he doesn’t have a “single friend” in Comrie.

At home in his rented cottage

On Monday, Perth Sheriff Court heard how locals saw his BMW weaving across the road. He admitted taking prescribed drugs and was convicted of driving under the influence of drink or drugs. He will be sentenced next month.

Von Werra, who insisted on wearing white tie and tails for our photographer, said: “My arm was almost cut off in a car smash years ago and they gave me morphine. That was the beginning of my involvement with drugs.”

The people of Comrie reject von Werra’s courtroom claim that he was the victim of a conspiracy.

One woman said: “I once had a word with him because he was walking up and down the High Street in Nazi uniform.